Summer is said to be the season for insects, and it’s true.
I was planning to update on the weekend, but I got delayed because I spent too much time dealing with pests.
Honestly… EDF! EDF!
Even though I’d already taken a wrong turn, I decided against heading straight to the Magician’s Guild. Instead, I opted to visit the shopping district first to stock up on anti-magician equipment.
When fighting mages, elemental resistance gear is essential.
I want to browse the accessory shops and re-equip myself thoroughly.
While we walk, I’ll share stories about how I cleared the Magician’s Guild in the Game era with the two of them, to share knowledge.
“…And then, this happened.”
As I started recounting my past experiences, the awkward atmosphere that had settled between us vanished.
Ringo patted my shoulder with a “pom, pom,” and Mitsuki looked at me with a gentle gaze.
This, in itself, made me feel uncomfortable.
“I don’t quite understand, but it sounds like you went through a lot of trouble.”
“No, that was pretty much my own fault.”
I slowly shook my head, my eyes tracking Mitsuki’s swaying cat ears.
Believing unconfirmed information and saving was a mistake, only showing my inexperience as a “Nekoneko” player.
If I were to save, I should have at least checked the patch notes first.
It wasn’t uncommon for patches to render events cleared before their implementation ineffective. Worse, there were critical bugs like the “Forgetful Knight Commander” bug, which allowed players to undertake the same event twice, or missing event items added after a fix, making game progression impossible.
One should carefully review the correction items, read the angry voices and damage reports online, weigh the potential risks against the potential benefits, and only then, after being completely convinced, tell oneself, “What I’m about to do isn’t gameplay. It’s debugging.” That’s what the latest “Nekoneko” patch entailed.
Back then, I utterly lacked that resolve.
…Well, of course, the “Nekoneko” staff, who forced such resolve upon players, were the ones who were strange.
Indeed, the reset of the guild event’s effects caused various problems, leading to further patches for the patches.
First and foremost, the most unpopular aspect was the terrible event flow, including the dream sequence.
The Magician’s Guild event also had subtle modifications. After the ritual, instead of being unable to leave the tower, a mini-event was added where the vice guild master approaches me to offer blessings.
The content was generally the same as when I exited the tower.
The vice guild master praised me for successfully completing the ritual and offered words of congratulation, calling me the next Guild Master of the Magician’s Guild.
What differed was what came next.
Perhaps because they could no longer surprise the player by having them exit to an empty Capital City, a window overlooking the outside was added on the top floor, along with a bed.
And there, by the window overlooking the city, the meek and gentle, yet barely present, vice guild master, for once, smiled broadly and said.
“This is the new Capital City. See? That narrow road in front of our guild. Normally, around this time, a girl walking Im would be passing by. She’s a lively child. When she met my eyes from inside the guild, she’d wave happily, saying, ‘Big brother, hello!’… But she will never pass there again. That impudent little brat, who doesn’t know her place—no, even the lowly creature she was walking, her family, all of them are now relics of the past. What? Why the long face? Please, rejoice even more. Through the ritual performed by Iasky and you, the filthy and foolish populace has been cleansed!? The ignorant citizens who harbor prejudice against mages, the obstinate royal family who refuse to acknowledge the superiority of mages, and those detestable traitors who, despite being fellow practitioners of magic, fail to comprehend its lofty ideals—all of them, every last one, have been perfectly cleaned away by the ritual performed by Iasky, and by you! By you, specifically! Ah, truly, it is a great achievement that I, lacking talent and timid, could never accomplish in hundreds of years! It is truly, truly magnificent! Never before in the history of the kingdom has anyone killed so many people. You have truly rewritten history! You have created a new history, Asama!”
It was, in a word, the worst kind of flattery.
Literally, of course.
As I’m a Solo Player, I never experienced it, but this quest can only be undertaken solo. If companions are present, they wait outside the tower, and they are apparently informed of their ritual deaths at this point.
I can’t imagine it, but if a truly innocent child were to play this event, it might be traumatic due to its sheer wickedness.
The vice guild master, for the most part, talks incessantly, and most people can’t stand it and try to leave.
Unfortunately, modifications have been made to prevent them from leaving the tower.
The entrance to the large magic circle room on the floor below cannot be entered or exited, so the player cannot escape the vice guild master.
Ultimately, the only thing left to do is approach the other object added to the top floor, a large bed placed unnaturally at the opposite end from the window.
Then, the vice guild master would start saying things like this.
“Oh, are you tired? Then please rest on that bed.
However, please be careful. This is actually a daydream, and the real you might still be in the process of deciding whether to accept the ritual proposal from Iasky.
If you fall asleep, you might wake up from this wonderful dream… or so I jest.”
As this obvious prelude suggested, sleeping on that bed would return you to a state just before the final quest.
The moment just before the final quest begins is when you are sent into the tower by Iasky via the guild’s transfer magic circle. So, the moment you sleep, you find yourself standing before the supposedly dead Iasky, which, even if expected, is heart-stopping.
Incidentally, once the influence is reset, everything related to the ritual, let alone the final quest, is nullified. You can no longer enter the tower, and if you ask Iasky about the ritual, he would say:
“Ritual? Purification? What are you talking about?
I don’t approve of the idea of eliminating those who oppose you.
Mages must coexist with those who are not.
It is the responsibility of us, the Magician’s Guild, to achieve this.”
He wouldn’t remember a thing and would respond with exemplary words, as if he were the “ideal Guild Master.”
Whether he truly meant it or not, the complete opposite behavior from before the influence reset makes one feel strangely unsettled, or so it seems to be the standard experience.
While this Magician’s Guild event is bad enough, the Warrior’s Guild event is no less so. The event begins the moment the player, to join the guild, touches the precious statue that is the symbol of the Warrior’s Guild and creates a ‘Brain-dead Field’ within the guild, the ‘Full-Build Bob,’ and is enveloped in a divine light.
It turns out the player possesses a peculiar special constitution called “Super-Muscle Resonance,” and embarks on a crazy story to achieve the realization of the God-Muscle Utopia, an ideal world where the blessings of muscles extend to all living things.
In essence, one must clash head-on with the Warrior’s Guild executives, who understand only physical language, all while progressively powering up the Full-Build Bob statue and expanding the Brain-dead Field to cover the entire world for clearance.
The Brain-dead Field is a terrifying field that turns those within into cavemen. Systematically, it means that people inside have their skills and magic sealed, and they are forced to fight with their own bodies alone.
It is truly a field for the meticulously muscular.
If you embrace it, the entire thing is a gag and can be hilarious, but clearing the final event amplifies the brain-dead effect. All people in the world, including women and children, companions, and even the player themselves, have all their dialogue replaced with mysterious muscle-mutterings like “Nun!”, “Haa!”, “Funnaraba!”, “Osu!”, “Ah!”, and “Yaranai ka?”, rendering normal gameplay impossible.
Unlike the Magician’s Guild event, you can walk around freely after all guild events are completed. However, since characters don’t die, quest items aren’t dropped, and no matter where you go or who you talk to, they only utter things like “Fun!”, “Haii!!”, “Ouf!”, making it impossible to progress the event.
Thus, the existence of patches was quite beneficial. However, the fixes for this were even more shoddy than those for the Magician’s Guild.
After all, after clearing the final event, if you fall asleep somewhere, without any preamble, you’d hear:
“As you awaken, the Ideal Muscle Utopia vanishes, and the town regains its usual liveliness.
So. It was a dream…
You murmur in disappointment, but immediately flex your biceps.
Don’t worry, your dream still resides here.
You take a first step towards a new hope, feeling the lingering remnants of a dream long past.”
This unprofessional-sounding monologue, clearly recorded by some staff member, was a slapdash addition that, along with the insidiously unpleasant additional event for the Magician’s Guild, received just as much negative feedback, sparking a major backlash against the staff.
As a result, subsequent patches nullified the vice guild master’s creepy speeches and the tacked-on dream endings for both guild events. The current state, where “Reset Guild Event Effects” is an option on the menu screen, was achieved.
Furthermore, there were issues with those very re-fixes…
“So, is the Warrior’s Guild’s Brain-dead Field alright?”
“That’s not a problem. The event shouldn’t progress without player cooperation.”
I answered Mitsuki’s question with confidence.
The Warrior’s Guild event progresses primarily based on the player’s special constitution.
Unlike the tasks in the Magician’s Guild, which can be done by anyone, such as collecting Mithril, the Warrior’s Guild event is impossible to proceed without the player.
“Then, if we just destroy the Magician’s Guild, there will be no further worries, is that right?”
“Not the Magician’s Guild itself, but rather the Guild Master, Iasky.
He’s the only one we absolutely must stop.
However, to capture him, there are several problems we need to resolve.”
The most troublesome is his stronghold, the Tower of Sorcery.
To enter the Tower of Sorcery, one must either use the transfer magic circle on the first floor of the guild or open a hidden door.
However, only Iasky can use the transfer magic circle, and only Iasky himself and the executives of the Magician’s Guild know how to open the hidden door.
The procedure required to open the hidden door varies with each game data, and even I cannot pinpoint it.
“Mitsuki. You passed Salmon from the Magician’s Guild in front of the library before, didn’t you?
Can you track where he is now?”
“Yes. Please wait a moment… Huh?”
Her cat ears twitched in surprise, as if to say, “Oh, where did he go?”
“I cannot detect him. Could it be… he’s already dead?”
“No… Thank you. That’s probably the correct answer.”
The Tower of Sorcery is likely treated as an independent map.
Systemically, it’s closer to the other dimension where the Arken Family resided than a normal building.
External detection abilities don’t register him, and transfer magic or items are also ineffective.
Since it’s data-isolated, entry via Illusionary Mirage is impossible. Transfer Stones, which can only be used in locations connected to the world map, are also ineffective.
It’s extremely troublesome if they barricade themselves in there. In the worst-case scenario, if Iasky and the vice guild master were to hole up inside the tower, we would be powerless.
Furthermore, if the ritual were to be forced, even in an incomplete state, we wouldn’t know what would happen. Above all, it’s crucial to prevent the opponent from acting freely.
“That’s why we’ll use the game events.”
In this world, the coercive force of events is strong.
If we take actions that align with the game events, they should be compelled to follow suit.
By triggering a series of events that Iasky cannot ignore, we will prevent him from taking action. That is the basic strategy.
“First, we’ll trigger the ‘Guild Joining Event’ to lure Iasky out.”
In the ‘Ritual of Baptism,’ the Guild Joining Event, the Guild Master personally performs a ritual on new recruits.
For anyone else, applying for guild membership at this time might be refused.
However, if I, the player, were to apply, it would be a legitimate event. The coercive force of the event should drag Iasky out.
“Then, will you capture him when he comes for the ritual?”
“No, the ritual is performed on the transfer magic circle. If he suspects something and escapes into the tower, all our efforts will be in vain.
Therefore, we’ll trigger the ‘Underling’s Rebellion Event’ there and capture Iasky for sure.”
By meeting two conditions—’Joining the Magician’s Guild’ and ‘Challenging the Guild Master’—the ‘Underling’s Rebellion Event’ can be triggered.
The Underling’s Rebellion Event is a large-scale duel event to contest the Guild Master’s position. Upon declaring the challenge, guild members divide into two factions, the Guild Master’s side and the challenger’s side, and all engage in duels. The leader of the winning side becomes the next Guild Master.
Which team the guild members join depends on their individual affinity. Naturally, no one would side with me, a newly joined guild member. In other words, to win the Underling’s Rebellion Event, I would have to defeat “Everyone in the Magician’s Guild vs. Me.”
“But, with my current strength, I can win. I’m confident.”
This isn’t a lie. Back in the day, I honed my combat abilities in preparation for the Demon Lord battle. If I fight in peak condition, I am confident I can defeat even twenty or thirty opponents with ease.
And, this is important: if the player wins against Iasky, the disgraced Iasky will be captured by the Knights’ Order during the event due to the actions of opposing factions and taken to the castle. …Though admittedly, the opposing factions also become enemies in the duel unless their affinity is above a certain level, but let’s not worry about such minor inconsistencies.
In any case, by winning the Underling’s Rebellion Event, we can incapacitate Iasky with high probability. And for that…
“However, both of these events must be completed solo. So, I’m sorry, but please wait for me in front of the guild—”
“—No.”
Before I could finish, Ringo grabbed my arm.
“Weren’t you listening? This time, it’s okay for me to go alone. So, it would be better if you two just waited obediently…”
“…No.”
Ringo shook her head and, as if showing her absolute refusal to let go, hugged my arm.
It seems Ringo is nervous about being left behind. I also want to fight together as a trio for the last time, and that’s partly why I’ve considered letting them come along. Despite that, this is problematic.
“Hey, it’s not that I want to leave Ringo behind. It’s just a little…”
“…No. It’s okay if you leave me behind.”
“What!?”
I was speechless at the unexpected reply. Ringo’s expression when she said, “Don’t leave me behind,” is seared into my memory. Yet, she says it’s okay to leave her behind. What does she mean?
Before my confused eyes, Ringo’s gaze briefly fell to her hands, to the rings she wore, the culmination of her efforts. Still, as if shaking it off, Ringo looked up at me again and said clearly.
“…If I’m a hindrance, it’s okay to leave me behind.”
“Lin-go…?”
“…But, you can’t go alone.”
The grip on my arm tightened. My gaze met Ringo’s as she looked up. In those desperate eyes, I forgot to breathe.
“…Soma, you said you can’t use equipment during the ‘Ritual of Baptism’.”
“You remembered…?”
Indeed, during the Ritual of Baptism, you are forcibly equipped with the weakest ritual gear, and your Adventurer’s Bag is taken away. This is, of course, a temporary measure only during the ritual, but I don’t know if there will be time to retrieve it. If Iasky escapes while I’m changing, all our efforts will be in vain. I intended to trigger the Underling’s Rebellion Event the moment the ritual ended.
In the worst-case scenario, I might have to fight dozens of mages with only the gear from the Ritual of Baptism on. That is the biggest concern of this plan. I tried to speak as discreetly as possible, but was I too naive?
“…Don’t go to such a dangerous place alone.”
Faced with Ringo’s gaze, which showed concern only for me, I didn’t know how to respond. If Ringo was simply trying to keep me from leaving her side, I might have been able to forcefully pull away. But…
“…Honestly, I can’t watch this.”
As I stood frozen, unable to speak, a shadow crept up.
“Whoa!? Mi-Mitsuki!?”
Suddenly, a soft touch on my other arm, the one Ringo wasn’t holding. I looked, and Mitsuki was holding my arm just like Ringo, pulling me.
“You want to complete the event alone. Ringo-san doesn’t want you to go alone. Then, the solution is simple. You handle that event. However, we’ll come along and intervene if unforeseen circumstances arise… Is that not acceptable?”
“Uh, well, that may be the case, but…”
“…Mm.”
I found myself nodding at Mitsuki’s logical words. Seeing this, Mitsuki nodded as if to say, “Good,” and glanced sideways.
“Besides, both of you. While you’re lost in conversation, don’t forget to look around properly. …Look.”
Mitsuki’s ears indicated where to look. There was a signboard that read “Accessory Shop”…
“—If I hadn’t noticed, we would have nearly passed our destination?”
“Wha-!”
As I stammered at the line, “Don’t you say that!”, Mitsuki elegantly folded one ear and gave a “pechin” wink.
(So proud! But cute!)
Mesmerized by the charm of the cat-eared girl swaying proudly, I didn’t notice anything when Mitsuki, as if she had just achieved her goal, smiled at Ringo.
Forgetting my reluctance for them to accompany me, I was simply drawn along by Ringo’s hands pulling my arms and Mitsuki’s chest, and the three of us entered the accessory shop.
Mitsuki discovers how to manipulate Soma.
